A few weeks ago I wrote a short post about Zillow.com which generated lots of reader e-mail. Good stories about how various people are using it to locate real estate opportunities here in the City.

Here's another tool, from RealestateABC.com that's worth checking out, too. The results provide comparables in the area that you are searching. Check it out. I also like the familiar google maps interface.

Compare the results for 111 Penhurst Pkwy - our former Mayor's residence - on Zillow with the results from RealEstateABC for the same property.

I started covering the City's newest library over a year ago. Here's what I posted the other day. It's ready to open on April 1st. While I was initially impressed with the development, I've changed my mind over the last year regarding various aspects of the building's design. George over at Buffalo Rising used one of my pics yesterday in a post and asked the obvious question, "Why did the Merriweather Library get a pass?" If you haven't seen the thread of comments yet, check it out. 80+ comments dealing with race, design and the built environment.

In terms of blogging, this sort of cross-posting happens often here in Buffalo, NY See Alan's piece...

The other question of course that is not being asked is this. What's going to happens to the old library building the City of Buffalo owns on East Utica? Last time I checked it wasn't on the City's list of property for sale. I mean, shouldn't it have been on that list a year ago? "Hello, may I speak to Byron...."

On a related note...here's a google satellite image of the neighborhood around the Merriweather Library. (Drill down for more detail.) The high density area to the north and east of the library site is Hamlin Park. And in a related matter, I have a few dozen daily hits coming from this site over on wikipedia dealing with that increasingly larger and ever growing phenomenon known as the "urban prairie." Seems like someone linked to an earlier post I wrote where I compared the urban density of Utica/Jefferson with the more familiar intersection of Utica/Elmwood. Check it out!

The diocese calls its program, "Journey in Faith and Grace." Faith? If the diocese had faith, it wouldn't be talking about closing parishes. It would be expanding, not retreating, and it would have enough priests because it would have plenty of vocations. Grace? That comes from God and one must accept it. Again, if the diocese had grace, it would be flourishing instead of dying.

3/25/2006

Craig at America's North Coast, beat me to the Buffalo News article about our City's newest library. First one in 20 years! Here's the article and check out Craig's post. He has a few choice words about the design. I agree. I know a number of City planners that share Craig's opinion. As soon as the fence comes down along Utica, I'll post my comments about the experience I have walking past the gentle windowless concrete wall curves of the village huts.

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The new branch sits near the Apollo Theater and features an Afro-centric design reflective of an African village.

The design meshes six open, circular rooms on the perimeter - symbolicof village huts - nesting against a stunning central circle with atowering, light-filled skydome. The central area, symbolic of the village center, houses the circulation desk.

If someone would pass along pictures of local architect Robert Trayham Coles other work in Buffalo or elsewhere, I'd appreciate it.

Still nothing about the library the City of Buffalo is abandoning on Jefferson Avenue. It's in great shape and never seemed to make John Hannon's list over in the City's Real Estate Division of city property that's for sale. Didn't see a 'for sale' sign today either.

As the consciousness of "New Buffalo" slowly slides towards the East and embraces the extraordinary architectural heritage of the City's near East Side, you can't imagine what it feels like when people are beginning to talk about your own neighborhood, a neighborhood that's been neglected for so long and is now getting the spotlight. The new Frank E. Merriwether Jr. Library is almost ready to open and ground will be breaking soon on the 28 million dollar Performing Arts High School Project and the 15 million dollar Artspace project. More about the local architect who just purchased the three houses over on Coe Place. A small group of "Friends of Coe Place" met with him last week...

In the past few days a recent post over at BuffaloRising has received 50 + comments about another place in the neighborhood. Chicago based architect, David Steele writes about the struggle and opportunity presented by the decaying buildings in the St. Vincents Complex located at the corner of Riley and Ellicott Streets, and just around the corner from Main Street. Here's the map. And here's David Steel's piece about St. Vincents.

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I had the chance this afternoon to take some addtional pics of the buildings and grounds around St. Vincents. Here's the flickr slideshow.

An Elmwood artist suggested that this location would make an excellent Charter School for the Elmwood Village. When I was walking around the grounds today, I imagined the same thing...

St. Vincents is close to the meet-up point for this summer's Preservation Coalition bike tour, arrive early and explore this part of Midtown on your own. And don't forget to check out the two neighborhood planning documents by Chris Hawley and Stevan Stipanovich detailing additional Midtown residential and commercial opportunity.

3/20/2006

Here's the full text of an interview that appeared in the Buffalo News over the weekend featuring Rev. Richard Stenhouse and some of the work he's doing in the neighborhood.

The Rev. Richard A. Stenhouse of Bethel AME Church is chairman of the Jeremiah Partnership, a collaboration ofchurches focused on community-building. He is also a member of the Buffalo control board. He discussed community and economic development.

Q: How do you view Buffalo's overall economic landscape?

A: The overall economic landscape is certainly in need of improvement and job creation that would hopefully bring more people back to town and increase the tax base.

From an economic viewpoint, there's certainly a need for job creation. More jobs to fuel a greater tax base that can fuel more revenue for the city.

Right now, the economics for Buffalo is very dismal. The city has not recovered from the recession of a few years ago. So there are very few months where we gain jobs. With Delphi, Ford and General Motors going through their current situation, the future has some question marks. If we're not in crisis, we're near crisis.

Q: How can we fix the fiscal mess?

A: Through structural changes in the government. All union contracts have to be modified to fix the structural problems that prevent the city from becoming fiscally healthy. No matter what happens, Buffalocannot afford past traditions and procedures that are in the union contracts. It's just not financially feasible. . . .

Without that concession, Buffalo's fiscal future is very dismal. Heaven forbid the state ever goes through a downturn in which it cannot give municipalities more money.

Q: What is the Jeremiah Partnership and how did it begin?

A: The Jeremiah Partnership is a collaboration of seven East Side churches: St. John Baptist Church, Greater RefugeTemple of Christ, Mount Olive Baptist Church, New Mount Ararat Templeof Prayer, Pentecostal Temple of God in Christ, Bethesda World Harvest and Bethel AME Church.

Pastors started meeting to discuss various issues, biblical and community matters. We're all involved in community development. Bethel received some funds to do a project onJefferson Avenue. Most of our work had been around the church area, soI talked to the other ministers who had done work on Jefferson.

As we continued the discussion, we realized we were contiguous. Where my area stopped, their areas started. We decided we could worktogether. In putting our pieces together, we really do encompass agreat part of the East Side and we formed a partnership.

So instead of putting seven individual requests to funders, we put onerequest from all of us to do a series of projects. We don't needseparate executive directors and staff. Just as corporations, we couldmerge to be more economically feasible and have greater impact on the marketplace.

We have a lot of projects on the drawing boardthat, once we get a staff and nonprofit status, we feel will greatly improve the economics of the East Side, but we're also dealing with thedelivery of human services and education.

Q: How are plans progressing to create a retail incubator on Jefferson Avenueacross from Tops?

A: We're hopeful the building will be open in May. We have four tenants lined up and leases are signed. M&T Bank is one of the tenants, along with three minority entrepreneurs. If the project is successful, we plan to do similar projects to give minority entrepreneurs an opportunity to be on the East Side at rents and overhead that assists them in becoming successful.

Here's an example of Bethel CDC's plans for the neighborhood. The New Row House Development along Michigan Avenue is scheduled to include 8 low to moderate income 3 bedroom apartments.

No news yet on the financing. I attended last week's Planning Board Meeting at City Hall and had a conversation with Bethel's point man Ben Upshaw about the project.

3/18/2006

As the Buffalo Diocese and Bishop Kmiec continue to support the entire notion that, "the church is not about buildings," a new architecturally insignificant McChurch is rapidly taking shape at the corner of Hickory and Eagle streets here in Buffalo, NY. I first mentioned this in November and more construction pics in December.

The Bishop's Journey to Avoid Housing Court can now be seen within a larger emerging shift in the role religion plays on Buffalo's East Side. Mecca is now providing more support to Buffalo's East Side! Read the recent Buffalo News article that BroadwayFillmoreAlive.org archived right here.

Mary Kunz Goldman from the Buffalo News just got into a row with the Bishop's talking head recently, over here regarding the Catholic Church's failure to ignite community redevelopment in the void that is now being filled by a Mosque.

Read more about Sheikh Ibrahim Memon and the Darul Uloom al Madania, right here.

3/16/2006

Make sure to pick up a copy of the latest Artvoice this afternoon. Three great articles that focus on various aspects of the City's East Side Housing Crisis and the cover story about abandoned, boarded, derelict and vacant houses around some of the newest City schools.

The Woodlawn Row Houses are featured in one of the articles, written by staff intern Daniel Honigman. The article, Home Improvement shouldn't come as a surprise to FixBuffalo readers.

For a city in dire need of a unique selling point, the Woodlawn Row houses on Woodlawn Avenue represent a perfect example of a fix-it-up opportunity for Buffalo, and a chance to help improve its image.

Built in 1894, the Woodlawn Houses are one of only three examples left in Buffalo of the row house design, a traditional form of urban architecture. Known for their sturdiness as well as the ability to blend seamlessly into city streetscapes, row houses are seen in many metropolitan cities all over the world.

The houses, located on 147-153 Woodlawn Avenue, are no secret. Or are they? Read the rest...

The second article, Salvaging a Dream profiles some of the more innovative work of Eastside Activist Michele Johnson. I profiled her plans and what other cities are doing about alternatives to demolition last year. I've called it De-constructing Buffalo. Lots of excellent links.

Today's cover story points to a persistant problem. I covered a small part of it here, School House Project one year ago. Make sure to check out this post about the abandoned BMHA Glenny Drive Apartment complex featured in the Artvoice cover story. Lots of photos!

3/14/2006

The following map shows the overall ethnic makeup of the Buffalo, NY area. In the case of this map, ethnic makeup is defined as an individual who falls within one of four categories --- White, Black, Asian, or Hispanic. Furthermore, the map indicates the density of each ethnic group by selectively color coding based on the dominate ethnic group. The dark colored areas in each category is an indicator of where that ethnic group has the highest concentration of that group as compared to the other groups. It is important to understand that even in the highest concentrated areas that that does no preclude another ethnic group from being present. To determine the number of people that live in an area you should view the population density map. Sources: US Census Bureau and Synergos Technologies, Inc.

From last week, here's Zillow.com again for those of you who missed the coolest on-line tool to help you investigate property and tax information. It uses the google maps interface making data retrieval really quick.

3/12/2006

Got this e-mail from George Grasser over the weekend about additional upcoming lectures and presentations involving Partners for a Livable WNY.

March 21 (Tuesday),12 noon, 3330 Main Street (corner of Niagara Falls Blvd.) monthlymeeting of the Citizens Regional Transit Corporation will have apresentation of a proposal by Joseph Radder for Metro Rail and VintageTrolleys to service Buffalo’s waterfront development area.

The building at 1471 Main St. has been sitting vacant for years at the corner of Main and Woodlawn Avenue. It's seeing new signs of life. I had a few minutes to chat with Cash Cunningham recently. He bought the building late last fall. Google Map.

I let him know that all my Woodlawn Avenue neighbors thank him for cleaning the place up and acquiring a responsible new tenant. The place is now lit up like a Christmas tree at night and Budget, well you know what they do!

Cash also did the Squier Mansion down the street a few years ago and is getting ready to close the deal on the Packard Building bringing additional new apartments to Midtown.

Around the corner at 174 Glenwood the City of Buffalo finally took down one of its own houses! Its been sitting there for 3 years, wide open and a block away from the future home of Performing Arts High School.

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Let's hope that the most recently acquired City of Buffalo property, 198 Glenwood is coming down next...I wrote about this property recently and openly wondered why the City took ownership at the recent tax auction when there's been an outstanding housing court warrant for the previous owner for three years, since the fire. For those of you familiar with this blog and part of my critique, you know that I've been comparing 198 Glenwood to 60 Brantford over in the City's more affluent Elmwood Village neighborhood. Comparing response times to fires and emergency conditions around our City schools.

I'll check later this week...

The demolition at 174 Glenwood last week marks the 13th demo in the 3 block area around the future home of Performing Arts High School in 12 months. 7 more that I have targeted...and 10 more that I'm adding to the list...

This runs contray to what at least one reader commented on, over here, with regards to the condition of Transfiguration Church before it was flipped for $7,000 to local attorney Buffalo William (Bill) Trezavant and his mother, Pauline Nowak.

...when the parish closed in 1993 they had already been using a renovatedspace in one of the other buildings for a couple years since the churchitself was already falling apart; the deterioration of the buildingstarted long before it was sold by the diocese (an area resident toldme that later priests just sort of “let the place go”)

Kevin Keenan of course is responding to my criticism, Buffalo Rising's questioning and Buffalo News columnist Mary Kunz Goldman's severe criticism of the Church's abandonment of traditional neighborhood duties in the urban core. Here's what she wrote earlier in the week.

After a brief "Friends of Coe Place" meeting at SpOT Saturday afternoon, Stevan Stipanovich and I spent a few hours walking around downtown checking out some of the latest developments. Here two pics showing the latest from IS Lofts on Oak (left) and the back end of the what's happening at Virginia and Main in the 800 block of Main Street (right).

Never ever ever pass up the opportunity to walk around the City of Buffalo with this guy. I got an unexpected mini course in urban design and all the latest development news. (Hint, Ellicott Street is happening...) I snapped a few pics that you can see in this Flickr slide show. Lots of cool stuff in the medical corridor. Walk around and check out the extraordinary quality of the materials and design surrounding the Hauptman Woodward complex and the new UB and Roswell Park buildings.

3/08/2006

I began photo documenting the long slow and painful process of the demolition by neglect of the Woodlawn Row Houses in March 2004. The houses were vandalized recently and despite my best efforts at reboarding, I just can't keep up.

"Hello Antoine Thompson, Masten District Councilman..."

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The Woodlawn Row Houses, for those of you who are new to my blog, were designated a "local landmark" by the City's Preservation Board in 1981. The abandonment and neglect here at the Woodlawn Row Houses motivated me to gather awareness about these issues and begin blogging my neighborhood. The City of Buffalo has owned these this piece of our architectural legacy for the past three years.

Here's the complete archive of monthly updates. If you get as pissed off as I do about the City's malfaesance and inability to properly manage this property, please do not call Masten District Councilman Antoine Thompson. He's done nothing. You wouldn't even know the property is for sale by walking or driving by, would you?

And so it goes...read the next post about some positive neighborhood developments.

3/07/2006

On Monday I had the opportunity to review the plans for the latest development here on the City's near East side. Bethel CDC has filed plans with the City to construct 8 three bedroom single family row houses on Michigan Avenue. Here's the map.

I grabbed these pics of the proposed development.

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There's a review scheduled for next Tuesday March 14th at 9:00am on the 9th floor. Despite the proposed demolition of 4 houses that are currently owned by Bethel CDC - think Rev. Stenhouse, yes the guy who sits on Buffalo's Control Board - that have been vacant (and not maintained for years) all the neighbors that I spoke to this evening were excited about the project. The feeling was that future tenants will be held to a very high standard as the two sets of new row houses sit opposite one of the Church's main entrances. Bethel AME is also home to Bethel Head Start.

Update 3/11/06

Here the houses that Bethel wants to demo to make room for the new project.click to enlarge

The plans that I reviewed didn't contain any information about construction financing. My neighbors all had concerns about landscaping and maintenance issues. We have all taken turns maintaining the Church's lot at the corner of Woodlawn and Michigan for the past few years. It's not clear what the plans are for that vacant lot.

Make sure to check out this 1920's Sanborn fire map of the same neighborhood. It depicts dozens of row houses. Kudos to Bethel and Rev. Stenhouse for desiring to revive part of the neighborhood's legacy.

I know, there is lots to see here on the City's East Side, more than just our share of abandoned, boarded, derlict and vacant buildings. When you come over to take a look you'll see a wide range of new homes that have been built in the last 10 years. The owner of this home, one block away from the Woodlawn Row Houses never needs to shovel.

He took care of the problem years ago when he installed radiant heat in his driveway. I've been waiting all winter to show just how this works. On the coldest days of the winter, no need to shovel or plow the driveway here on Woodlawn Avenue.

Wonder if any other driveways in the City have this built-in. The only other example that I know about is the radiant heated sidewalk at Elmwood and Bird in front of We Never Close. Any other examples?

3/06/2006

Toronto Hydro Corp. will announce Tuesday that it plans to turn Canada's largest city into one giant wireless hotspot, directly challenging the country's major mobile phone carriers for a chunk of the $8 billion a year wireless market.

With the deployment, which sources say could be available in the downtown core as early as this fall, Toronto joins a growing list of North American cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, that have announced plans to bring low-cost, broadband wireless access to their citizens and businesses. Read the whole storyfrom the Toronto Star.

Way cool...

Meanwhile this is all we have in Buffalo here and here.. Maybe Buffalo Bloggers will pick up on this and give it the attention that it deserves.

Check out the latest about the decaying and soon to be demolished Transfiguration Church on Buffalo's East Side. Who could have imagined that the Buffalo News takes a position so critical of the Catholic Church? In Buffalo? Read on...

Today, Buffalo News columnist Mary Kunz Goldman came out swinging against the Diocese of Buffalo and Bishop Kmiec's "journey through faith and grace to avoid housing court." A most excellent critique, right here if you haven't seen it yet. Her stunningly simple solution comes in two parts. First, lead by example. Second, churches should carve out the neighborhood surrounding the church and adopt it.

No one said it was going to be easy. No one said it was going to be cheap. That's why the "Journey of Faith and Grace," as the Diocese of Buffalo dubs its current downsizing, is such a shame.

Remember the last wave of church closings, in 1993? Want to see thedestruction? Visit Transfiguration Church. Drive out Sycamore Streetfrom downtown, past Fillmore Avenue, and it's on your right.

Walk around. Take a good look

Frequent readers know that I've been hammering away at this theme for months. I get vicious hate mail from William Trezavant the local attorney who's mother Pauline Nowak has an outstanding housing court warrant for her arrest for building code violations at Transfiguration. (Bill, I'm collecting pieces of slate that I find on the sidewalk. Have your attorney contact me, I'll give 'em back when you are ready to do the roof repairs.)

This is her second column about the built environment. Last month's is here and from a blogger's perspective I noticed that it was the first Buffalo News story ever that featured a hyperlink in the on-line and print story.

Make sure to check out the Annals of Neglect for additional information about the Bishop's "Journey to Avoid Housing Court." The church is the third stop my Tour dé Neglect bicycle tour this summer. A local metal artisan living in the shadows of Transfiguration will be our neighborhood docent.

This is her second column about the built environment. Last month's is here and from a blogger's perspective I noticed that it was the first Buffalo News story ever that featured a hyperlink in the on-line and print story.

3/02/2006

George has been instrumental in galvanizing support for a new post office along Main Street's Midtown that is pedestrian and urban friendly. He also organized the phenomenally successful series last year over at Nichols, "Smart Growth is Smart Business." Check out the March Update to see what George has been up to.

He was the second person to introduce me to Zillow.com that I featured in an earlier post.

Imagine cool Google Maps interface + all the data publicly available regarding real property, what do you get - Zillow.com

This is too cool. For example, click here and drill down to 111 Penhurst Pkwy the current residence of former Buffalo Mayor Masiello. All sorts of cool information is available. There's an e-mail option to receive additional data when it becomes available for that current address.

Check out this place right behind the Mayor's house at 152 Lincoln Parkway. Yeah, guess what...it's off the tax rolls! The owner would have paid $37,000 in property taxes, but doesn't...hmmmm...